China — Day 11: June 2019

Sunday, August 4, 2019

Today was an important but challenging day. We went to visit the Shanghai Children’s Welfare Institute, the orphanage that Han lived in from when he was ~1 month old until we adopted him. No one was really “excited” about visiting but we knew it was an important thing to do. Esme didn’t want to visit so she stayed at the hotel with Mimi; Han had been asking to visit but got scared and nervous on the drive out there.

The facility was nice and we spent about an hour touring. We don’t know exactly which room Han was in but we saw a few places that looked familiar from pictures we have or have seen. We even met one of the staff who remembered him! He was being very shy and “clingy” when we were visiting, and she said (through our guide/interpreter) that she remembered him being much more energetic (that sounds like Han!). We also took a lot of pictures and videos of the kids (as many as we could without it coming off too strange) to share with parents who are awaiting adoptions, in case that maybe their child is in one of the pictures or videos. The kids seemed happy to see visitors and Han and Brynn especially liked the “play town” with a pretend market, restaurant, doctor’s office, etc.

After that, we visited Han’s “finding place,” which we had visited during our first trip. It’s a pretty nondescript neighborhood, a bit of a quiet respite in the middle of the big city, with a nice little playground serving a bunch of low-rise apartment buildings within a few blocks. We realized that the picture we took last time in front of what we thought was the doorway he was found was actually probably incorrect; the right one we think is was the one next door (the one with the metal grated door). Obviously things may have changed in the last 7 years and we weren’t able to learn anything more.

When we got back to the hotel, we just rested, and then later decided to venture out and find the Pizza Hut which was supposed to be nearby. It was raining, we had trouble sharing directions with the concierge/cab driver, we couldn’t all fit in the cab, it was raining– it was kind of a mess, so Jeff took the kids over and had dinner and then found a toy store in the mall afterwards. Leslie and Jeannie tried to walk to meet them, but got a bit turned around, then got soaked, and arrived right after the kids had left. We all met up at the hotel later and played cards.

You can always go to the SmugMug gallery to view or download all of the pictures and video or order prints directly from SmugMug.